del(HTML element)

Syntax

<delcite="uri"datetime="datetime">

</del>

Description

The
del element is used to indicate a change that saw the
author delete content which appeared in an earlier version of a
document.

del can be used to identify
any removed content, from a specific word or phrase that’s been removed
(in which case the del is deemed to be an inline
element) to an entire block of content, which could include a number of
nested block-level elements (in this case, the del is
deemed to be a block-level element).

The del element has a counterpart in the
ins element, which is used to
identify an insertion of content into a document.

Both elements have optional attributes that provide extra
information about the change that has been made to the document, namely
the cite and datetime
attributes.

Whether a del element is
determined to be inline or block level depends on the context in which
it’s used. If the del is an immediate child of
body (with a Strict Doctypes declaration), it’s a block-level
element. If it’s a child of a p element, it’s deemed
to be an inline element.

Note that a
del element can’t contain block-level child elements
when it’s used in a context that would make it inline (for example, a
del contained in a p can’t contain a
block-level element).

Example

The following text was
hastily revised, yet the author chose to identify what was
changed:

<p>Bernie enjoyed nothing more than a <del
datetime="2007-11-05T23:31:05Z">night out on the town at his
favorite drag queen show</del> <ins
datetime="2007-11-05T23:33:32Z">quiet night in with a warm cup of
cocoa.</ins></p>

Use This For …

This element
can be used for inline text content, or blocks of
content.

Compatibility

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Safari

Opera

Chrome

5.5

6.0

7.0

8.0

1.0

1.5

2.0

1.3

2.0

3.1

4.0

9.2

9.5

10.0

2.0

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

The
del element has good browser support; all the major
browsers render deleted text with a strikethrough.

The browser
support charts show partial rather than full support, because of the lack
of obvious support for the element-specific attributes
(cite and
datetime).

In this Section

cite
identifies the URI of the document that explains the reason for the content change